Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude

Moonlight

Entertainment, Movies

Watch: André Holland and Tarell Alvin McCraney Reunite In High-Stakes Soderbergh NBA Flick, High Flying Bird

André Holland is dreamy. Ever since seeing him blossom via Barry Jenkins’ patented full-on medium closeup shot in Moonlight, it’s been clear. Holland has a way of slicing into your soul with his eyes—and I’m here for every second of it. So, color me excited when I realized his first project of 2019 involved a…

By

Tonja Renée Stidhum

Published

January 22, 2019
Entertainment, Movies

Barry Jenkins on Racism: ‘If It Can Happen to Me, It Can Happen to Anyone’

Having money or status does not preclude anyone from experiencing racism, and director Barry Jenkins knows that first hand. At the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend, he relayed an experience he had while promoting his film Moonlight—and said it’s important for everyone to speak out when it happens to them. Jenkins’s latest film, If…

By

Monique Judge

Published

September 11, 2018
Entertainment, Movies

Moonlight Director Barry Jenkins Pays Homage to Baldwin on His Birthday

Barry Jenkins, director of Moonlight, which snagged 2017’s Best Picture Oscar, is back with If Beale Street Could Talk, based on James Baldwin’s 1974 novel. On what would have been Jimmy’s 94th birthday, Jenkins paid tribute to the Harlem-bred novelist and social activist by releasing the film’s trailer on Thursday. “For me, August 2nd has…

By

Angela Helm

Published

August 2, 2018
Entertainment, Movies

Barry Jenkins Visually Reimagines James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk For a Full Display of Cinematic Blackness

Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) has tackled James Baldwin’s tragic, yet beautiful tale, If Beale Street Could Talk. This is the first time any of Baldwin’s work will be adapted into film in the English language. Jenkins’ goal was to keep the integrity of Baldwin’s genius but make sure the film didn’t feel like literature.…

By

Danielle Young

Published

July 11, 2018
Entertainment

‘I Denied Myself That Dream’: Barry Jenkins Finally Gives That Best Picture Acceptance Speech

More than a year after that infamous mix-up at the Oscars, on Sunday at the SXSW conference, Moonlight director Barry Jenkins finally delivered the best picture acceptance speech he would have given. “I’m going to read something that I never read out loud before,” Jenkins opened: [Moonlight writer Tarell Alvin McCraney] and I are Chiron.…

By

Anne Branigin

Published

March 12, 2018
Very Smart Brothas

What The Chi Gets Right (and Wrong) About Chicago

Chicagoans are protective of their city, and for good reason. Over the past few years, the City of the Big Shoulders has been the go-to dog whistle for Republicans and what-about-black-on-black-crime enthusiasts alike. The city’s spot on America’s Wheel of Sensationalism has dominated the larger national media gaze as the premier symbol of the black…

By

Danielle Butler

Published

January 9, 2018
Top 10 Moments Black People Won in 2017

2017 has been, how do I put this succinctly, a fucking shit year. From the plagues of biblical proportions that this administration keeps trying to drop on us to the fact that Mother Nature is sick of the bullshit and has been trying to finally kill us all via hurricane, 2017 has not been skimpy…

By

Clarkisha Kent

Published

December 27, 2017
Very Smart Brothas

The 10 Blackest Moments of 2017, Ranked

2017 has been a motherfucker of a year. Despite this fact, blackness has flourished. We’ve seen a resurgence of pride and excitement in blackness that is reminiscent of the Black Power movement of the ’60s. From #BlackGirlMagic to #BlackBoyJoy, Dead Mike from mythical rap group CB4 is outchea looking like a damn prophet as so…

By

Panama Jackson

Published

December 22, 2017
Entertainment

Moonlight Director on Why New James Baldwin Film Needs to Be in Harlem

After his history-making turn directing Moonlight, Barry Jenkins has chosen to tackle the work of one of America’s great literary icons: James Baldwin. Jenkins is adapting Baldwin’s novel If Beale Street Could Talk as his next feature film. As DNAinfo reports, Jenkins is choosing to stay true to the story by filming in Harlem, where…

By

Anne Branigin

Published

October 5, 2017
Entertainment

Moonlight Director Barry Jenkins to Write, Direct Film Version of James Baldwin Novel

Barry Jenkins, director of the Oscar-winning feature film Moonlight, has plans to bring more black excellence to the screen in the form of a screen adaptation of If Beale Street Could Talk, a novel by celebrated author James Baldwin. Deadline reports that the upcoming movie was already in development in May when Jenkins inked his…

By

Monique Judge

Published

July 10, 2017